Nebenzia: The next Astana meeting on Syria is expected to be held before the end of this year

New York, (ST) – Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, announced that the next international meeting on Syria is expected to be held in the Astana format before the end of this year.

TASS News Agency quoted Nebenzia as saying at a meeting of the UN Security Council yesterday that the Astana formula constitutes the most effective international mechanism to reach a solution in Syria. “Russia, for its part, hopes to organize a meeting in this format before the end of this year,” he added

Nebenzia said that the security threats to Syria and the entire region come from the remnants of the widely spread terrorist groups that have found shelter in Idlib, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates and in Al-Tanf, therefore, achieving progress in the course of the political process in Syria is very necessary.

The Russian delegate said that we are interested in making progress on issues related to the settlement in Syria on the basis of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and documents adopted at the Syrian National Dialogue Conference in Sochi in 2018. He stressed the importance of the Astana formula, which has proven its effectiveness as an international mechanism for a solution in Syria.

Nebenzia expressed his hope to organize another meeting in this format in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, before the end of this year.

The eighteenth international meeting on Syria in the Astana format took place on the 15th and 16th of last June, and at its conclusion a joint statement was adopted affirming the firm commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and to the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter.

Raghda Sawas